welcome to the chen-plotkin lab

The over-arching goal of our research is to better understand the mechanisms of neurodegenerative disease in order to intervene in these disease processes.  

Our general approach is to use unbiased genomic- or proteomic-scale screens in human-derived materials to generate leads, which are then followed mechanistically in relevant systems including neuronal culture and in vivo animal models.  The pace of technology development is allowing us to acquire more data, faster, than ever before, but this does not always translate into biological understanding.  We believe that to unlock the true potential of leads generated in this way, computational methods must work hand-in-hand with bench-based manipulative experiments.  We are looking for new ways to do this all the time.  If you have ideas, join us! 

We are part of the Neurology Department at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.  The lab is located in the Johnson Pavilion.